For the last two months, I’ve had the absolute fucking pleasure to take time off in Buenos Aires. My trip there was last minute – to say the least. I booked my flight on Friday, left Saturday, and arrived mid-day on Sunday.
On my flight, I realized how little I knew about Argentina. Yes, I know of Messi, Higuain, Borges, Patagonia, Malbec, and Bistec – but that was nearly the extent of my knowledge. I knew little about the people, culture, and lifestyle. It was like watching a movie without seeing any previews or reading any reviews. It was… liberating.
When I landed, I instantly felt like I propelled into the Parisian lifestyle. Cafes on (more than) every corner. A weird level of romance in the air consistently. A slightly cold personality. And buildings that looked like they were pulled out of any modern European city.
A quick google search will show you that this feeling was not exclusively my own. In fact, it was such a familiar feeling that BA is oft considered to be “the Paris of South America”. This mental connection was almost beautiful. There have been thousands of people who have walked around BA and thought – damn this is a lot like Paris. They wrote this online. And I had a sense of validation.
But… here’s the problem. Imagine I searched BA before the trip. I heard of it called “the Paris of South America”. I landed. Saw the city. And simply shut off the possibility that the city could be anything else. My mind would be blocked off to the fact that this was, in fact, the “Barcelona of South America” or just “a typical South American city”.
The sharing of information is incredible. It allows us as a population to think more rapidly and evolve faster. But at the same time… this causes a near global level of groupthink. The top results in Google will drive how you think. Whether or not you want them to.